Only nominally a sporting event, the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics will again be a showcase for NBC’s Today Show.
The Today Show team of Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie, along with former host Meredith Vieira, will anchor coverage of the Olympics Opening Ceremony on August 5, NBC announced Tuesday. It will be the second straight Opening Ceremony without Bob Costas, who co-anchored the event every time it aired on NBC from 1992-2012.
Neither Lauer nor Vieira is a newcomer to the Opening Ceremony. Lauer has worked the event four times and Vieira three, anchoring together in 2014. That same year, they took turns filling in for Costas when he missed several nights with an eye infection.
Guthrie has never been part of an Olympics telecast.
Dating back to 2000, NBC’s Opening Ceremony coverage has included at least one NBC News co-host — Katie Couric in 2000, 2002 and 2004, Brian Williams in 2006, Lauer in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, and Vieira in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
Since former Today Show executive producer Jim Bell took over NBC Olympics coverage in 2012, the network has ratcheted up the presence of non-sports personnel. In addition to Lauer, Vieira and Guthrie on the Opening Ceremony, reality show entertainer Ryan Seacrest will serve as the late night host this year.
(Tue. news from NBC Sports Group Press Box)
